Sunday, September 5, 2010

The WAC shuffle

Nice work by the WAC to land BYU on the Aggies’ schedule for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

But it doesn’t erase the fact that the conference is losing Boise State. Nor does it help ease the pain of Fresno State and Nevada leaving, either.

It’s a nice consolation prize.

No one can hate on BSU for taking off and going to the Mountain West. The Broncos have dominated the WAC for the past decade and truly are a cut above the rest of the field. Are they supposed the stick around and continue to pulverize teams week-in and week-out? No one’s getting better because of that.

Fresno State and Nevada leaving, to me, are a different story. They certainly are in the upper-echelon of the conference — nobody’s going to deny that. They have been premier WAC teams, but they aren’t in Boise State’s category.

Here are the past five years and how the teams have fared against equal or above competition outside of the WAC, as well as their WAC records during that span:

That's a 15-6 record against similar or above-average competition outside of league play. It's also two Fiesta Bowl wins during that span.

Also, the team has gone 38-2 during that period in WAC play.

Boise State needs to move on to bigger and better things. They have proven they can manhandle the WAC.

As for Fresno State and Nevada, they are clearly a cut above the WAC field. But are they on Boise State's level? No.

I would have preferred them to stick around the WAC for at least a few more seasons. It would have been good for the league, and would have made more sense for those respective programs. They still have much to prove before moving up…..